‘Walking Dead’ Ratings Slip With No Resolution To Glenn Rhee Death Plot

There was no World Series on Sunday, nor no Yes or No on The Walking Dead as to the fate of Steven Yeun’s Glenn Rhee character. And, despite that continuing storyline on the potential death of a core character, the AMC blockbuster lost a step against a very big Sunday Night Football on November 8.

With 12.44 million total viewers and 7.844 million among adults 18-49 for a 6.19 rating, according to Nielsen, the fifth episode of the sixth season of TWD dipped from the very competitive night of November 1. Viewershipwise, the series based on Robert Kirkman’s comics was down 6% and TWD slipped 9% in the key demo. That’s the first dip in two weeks for the show and a tie for lowest performance demo rating TWD has had this season so far. Week 2 of Season 6 of TWD had a 6.17 demo rating. Undoubtedly due to anticipation and hints about the outcome for Yeun’s Glenn, TWD aftershow Talking Dead rose slightly to 4.93 million viewers and 3.117 million among adults 18-49 on November 8.

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However, in terms of total viewership numbers and demo viewership numbers, Week 5 is a touch above the 12.2 million and 7.8 million that watched on October 18 – a night that saw a surge in SNF numbers and a record-breaking Game 2 of the National League Championship Series for MLB.

In the final numbers, the Philadelphia Eagles 33-27 OT win over the slumping Dallas Cowboys got a 8.4/25 in the demo with an average of 23 million viewers overall for NBC and the NFL on Sunday night. Head-to-head with TWD in the 9 PM hour, SNF drew an 8.5/24 rating and 23.8 million viewers – a far cry from last year when TWD was repeatedly besting SNF in the key demo on Sunday nights.

Compared to Season 5’s fifth episode of November 9, 2014, the November 8 TWD was down 10% among the 18-49 and 8% in total viewers. AMC will release Live + 3 numbers for TWD later this week. Last week saw the zombie apocalypse series essentially even with the cliffhanger week before when Yeun’s fate was literally thrown to the walkers.